Three and a half years after Mayor Bloomberg
closed huge portions of Mullaly and Macombs Dam parks to make way for
the Yankees new $1.5 billion stadium, the replacement ballfields the
city promised are nowhere to be seen.

It has been nearly 18 months since the last game was played in the
old stadium. Yet its concrete hulk still looms like a gray ghost across
the street from the Yankees new palace . . . No one in authority seems to care about this huge delay. Not the
bureaucrats in City Hall. Not the Parks Department. Not the Yankees.
Not the local politicians.

This is a bit melodramatic in that, yes, it appears that those projects are going to get done eventually. But the delays and cost overruns involved provide a pretty good and all-too-typical example of why people should never take a politician’s word about all of the good things the public will receive as a result of them subsidizing a billionaire’s playground.

They’re being stored crosstown at the same warehouse as the “World Class Waterfront” that Pat Riley promised us in the ads for the bond issue that built the AAA downtown for the Heet. You’ve seen the warehouse, actually – it was used as a set in the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Yeah, they also haven’t taken down one piece, unless it was to sell that piece… Wait a minute… They get to sell for profit all that Yankee stadium crap, seats and whatnot, meanwhile the tax payers are paying for the new ones??? LMAO!!! Stien-Vadar is a genius!!! If I were a NY taxpayer, I’d want to burn his house!!! With him in it!!! After Bloomberg of course… After all he was the one who was supposed to protect the taxpayers interests…

How much would it cost to build the parks? And what are those funds currently being used for?
Given the city’s financial situation, it seems likely that recreational projects, such as this, are being delayed so the funding can be directed to other areas of need.
That being said, I have little trust in government to effectively/efficiently put that money to good use.

I’m not going to go over-the-top on this, but where is the replacement anchor for the World Trade Center? The last thing that happened quickly in NYC was the Empire State Building, or something proposed by Robert Moses. (Sorry, Dodger fans, it was him, not O’Malley, that ultimately caused the Metropolitans).
On a brighter note, these delays will help the preservation of Gate 2. And Craig, you know how we miss Tiger Stadium, so give the city it’s time.
Bloomberg is just biding his time anyway until Derek Jeter gets elected mayor.

My beloved Shea came down in 3 1/2 months, beginning on Oct. 14, 2008 and ending on Jan. 31, 2009. Anything that could be auctioned off was auctioned off – Chipper Jones owns a pair of seats from his favorite out of town park. The work was done by the city, without a wrecking ball. (In fact, wrecking balls are illegal in NYC.)
The only reason I can think of that it’s taking forever for old Yankee to be torn down is that unlike Shea, the Yankee Stadia are in the middle of a residential neighborhood. But just last week, I noticed how little progress had been made on the old park, and wondered what was taking so long. The question is being asked rather stridently, but it’s a good question.

It’s not really melodramatic at all, CC. Whenever the point is raised the answer is, yeah, “Eventually,” with absolutely not details.
Oh, and keep in mind that in the original plan (or at least the original plan of the fifth or sixth iteration of the original idea), was to cut the Stadium (cap “S”) down to about half height and use it for little league, high school and college games.
Wouldn’t that have been a heck of a kick for a kid?

There is something incredibly ironic about Michael Bloomberg being a Boston native — look it up, the Mayor of New York is from there– being the guy that schemed with the Yankees on how to get a heavily taxpayer-funded palace built for the Yankees.
And I guy that grew up loving the Yankees, Rudy Guiliani, was not helping the Yankees at all to get a new stadium. Steinbrenner even made some threat about maybe going to New Jersey. When Steinbrenner wasn’t senile yet, that is.

I mean, seriously, Rudy is the man for not helping the Yankees build that taxpayer-burden new stadium. Bloomberg is a scam artist. Thank you for leaving Medford, Mass., Mr. Michael Bloomberg.
We already have enough shady politicians in Massachusetts, we didn’t need Bloomberg too.